It was another day in Zagreb: old women hanging the laundry to dry, children kicking cans, dogs urinating on the sidewalk...when all of a sudden - whoopsey daisy! - a street collapsed. Kupska street, a residential street in downtown Zagreb, disappeared into a 27-metre deep hole Sunday afternoon devouring several houses, cars and one-eyed cats. Miraculously, inconceivably even, no one was hurt, but dozens were rendered homeless and missed church.
The gaping maw opened its jaws unexpectedly when construction workers accidentally disturbed a strong underground stream; the workers had been diligently digging the hole for days, laying the foundation for an underground parking garage. As a result of the cave-in, dozens of homeless Zagreb citizens were moved into a hotel with no history of inexplicable collapse. They were joined by residents of some 20 nearby houses. An office building and a bank were also evacuated from the teetering brink of underground oblivion.
People's reactions to the incident were subdued at best. Evacuated pensioner Jovan Drezgan had this to say: "Ten days ago I noticed cracks in the walls. Since then I've been going to bed every night waiting for the house to collapse." Oh, the wisdom of the old...
Though still very unstable, the site of the cave-in has become a source of curiosity to Zagreb residents from still-standing areas of the city and tourists, receiving more visitors than the Mimara Museum on Monday. "This is becoming something of an attraction with people coming to take a peek at the crater," said one of two policewomen overseeing a makeshift checkpoint at the site. "If this keeps up, we might start charging a fee." |